Literature Review

Palliative care nurses share precious lessons learnt after decades working with the dying News.com.au [Australia]; by Jessica Wang; 6/16/24 After taking care of terminal patients who are facing death for 35 years, Sydney nurse Cindy Grundy has learnt a lesson or two about living. Her most cherished is to “guard your time” and treat it like the invaluable commodity that it is, says the palliative care nurse, who works in an inner-city public hospital. “To me, time is everything. It’s so precious,” the 59-year-old said. “You need to learn how to prioritise things and let go of the things that don’t matter. I appreciate the smaller things in life from working in this job but time is a big thing for me.” ... At the heart of what she does, and other palliative care nurses do, is make sure patients can get the most out of the last few hours, days, weeks or months of life – whether that’s through managing their symptoms or fulfilling their last wishes. “They’re dying but they’re still alive and that’s a chance for laughter, love and new experiences,” says fellow Sydney-based nurse Steven Turk.

RN pay for all 50 states adjusted by cost of living | 2024 Becker's Hospital Review; by Mackenzie Bean; 6/13/24 California has the highest hourly mean wage for registered nurses, even after adjusted for cost of living, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Following] are the mean hourly wages for nurses in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., adjusted for cost of living. Becker's calculated these figures using May 2023 salary data from BLS and 2024 cost of living index data from the World Population Review. (Click on this title's link for each state's (1) RN hourly mean wage, (2) Cost of living index, and (3) RN hourly mean wage, adjusted by cost of living.

4 CFOs' keys to improved operating performance Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Andrew Cass; 6/13/24Altru, Memorial Health, Penn State Health and Sharp HealthCare are among the systems that reported improved year over year operating performance in their most recent financial reports.  Becker's asked the CFOs of the four health systems to share one key to their boosted operating performance: ...

Celebrate CNA Week Toolkit: June 13-19, 2024 NAHCA - The CNA Association; retrieved from the internet 6/14/24 This year, CNA Week is from June 13th to June 19th. With the theme of "We'll Be There For You," NAHCA created this toolkit for CNAs and for the skilled nursing centers, assisted living communities, and staffing and home health agencies they work for so that everyone can celebrate, recognize, and pay their respects to the incredible work that the nearly 1 million-strong contingent of frontline heroes does everyday for elders and people with disabilities. Editor's Note: We apologize for the late date of this notice, as it has not been showing up in our many newsfeeds. That fact illustrates how healthcare too often neglects our valued Certified Nursing Assistants. Are you doing something special to thank your CNA's? If you post something on your website to honor your CNA's, please let me know via jberger@hospicepalliativecaretoday.org. Thank you.

3,000+ nurses at 6 Providence facilities to strikeBecker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 6/10/24 Members of the Oregon Nurses Association are set to begin a three-day strike June 18 at six Providence facilities, in what the union deems the largest nurses' strike in the state's history. The union represents more than 3,000 nurses at the following facilities, according to an ONA news release:

It pays to know: What 100 looks like!Rafu Shimpo; by Judd Matsunaga, Esq; 6/5/24Not too long ago, seeing a person 100 years of age was a rare thing. Now, they’re becoming more commonplace. There are an estimated 90,000 centenarians living in the U.S. It’s still a small percentage of the population, but it’s a number that’s expected to keep increasing. By 2060, there could be about 600,000 people who are 100 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Is there a secret recipe for a longer life? What’s it take to get there? That’s a question geriatrician Thomas Perls, M.D., has been investigating for decades with the New England Centenarian Study. ...

LeadingAge: CMS on right track with high-acuity hospice RFIHospice News; by Jim Parker; 5/31/24 The senior care advocacy group LeadingAge has praised the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inquiries into high-acuity palliative care, but expressed concern over reimbursement and staffing issues. The agency’s 2025 proposed hospice rule featured a series of requests for information (RFI) on issues like health equity, social determinants of health and future quality measures. The RFIs contain further questions about the utilization of higher-cost palliative treatments under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The agency posed similar queries in its proposed rule for 2024. The new proposal seeks greater clarity on the financial risks and costs that providers say represent barriers to providing those services, such as palliative chemotherapy, radiation blood transfusions or dialysis, among others.

Manassas Park teens complete inaugural nurse aide course while earning high school diploma ABC News 7 Washington DC; by Victoria Sanchez; 5/30/24 Ten Manassas Park seniors completed their high school nurse aide program and are on their way to being certified by the Virginia Board of Nursing, all while earning their diploma. The inaugural Nurse Aide Pathway class is a competitive, five-day-a-week program that teaches the teens 22 skills they need to become a CNA. They also learned outside the classroom during 40 hours of clinical rotations at a local hospice center. ... “This is the best opportunity I could ever have in high school and will forever be one of the best opportunities I ever have in my life,” said student Javi Sedeno Cisneros. He has an eye on earning an MD after becoming a CNA. ... During their time at the hospice center, the 17-year-olds experienced life lessons most of their peers won’t learn for years.... [Read more for this inspiring, innovative solution.]

Would an 'unbossed' culture work in healthcare? Becker's Hospital Review; by Madeline Ashley; 5/24/24 The workforce has seen an influx of changes and trends come and go in a post-pandemic world, with more employees taking the reins and standing up for new, flexible ways to get their jobs done. One such trend catching on lately is the "unbossed culture." The term describes a work environment wherein management assumes more of a leadership role than a supervisor role. The hands-off approach makes for fewer check-ins, allowing employees to have more ownership over how they tackle and complete their tasks. While this new workforce trend spreads across multiple industries, the glaring question remains, "Would an unbossed culture work in healthcare?" 

Hospital staffing shortages draws hundreds to California rally AFSCME, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees; by UNANC/UHCP and AFSCME International Staff; 5/21/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. – More than 400 health care union members went to the California state Capitol during National Nurses Week this month to appeal to the state’s elected leaders to fix the nursing education backlog and hospital staffing issues that affect patient care. ... Rally participants pressed lawmakers to make health care education and training programs more accessible so students remain in their California communities for their health care careers. They also appealed to lawmakers to empower health care professionals to enforce safe staffing standards in the state’s hospitals.Editor's Note: Pair this article with others in today's issue, in our "Education" section.

Transformative peer connections: Early experiences from the ASCO Palliative Care Community of Practice American Society of Clinical Oncology; by Mazie Tsang, Cristiane Bergerot, Natasha Dhawan, Rushil Patel, Darcy Burbage, Tingting Zhang, Jafar Al-Mondhiry, Joseph McCollom, Ramy Sedhom; 5/22/24 online ahead of print in June 2024  ... there are barriers to implementing palliative oncology at many institutions for myriad reasons. ... In this article, we discuss an innovative strategy that ASCO implemented called the Communities of Practice (CoP). We share our experiences as the Palliative Care CoP and how our group seeks to develop processes and structures to collectively promote systemic change and enhance palliative care delivery for people with cancer. Our Palliative Care CoP engages with senior leaders, administrators, and those in power to achieve a shared vision of delivering holistic health care for people with serious illness. ... [We address] eight main domains:

Understanding the role of Learning & Development in employee well-being Today Headline - Education News; 5/21/24... The Connection Between Learning and Well-Being: Learning and Development programs [L&D] are often associated with upskilling, reskilling, and career advancement. But their potential extends far beyond professional growth. Learning can have a positive impact on employee well-being, too. When employees are engaged in continuous learning and skill development, their overall sense of well-being improves significantly. ... [The] role of L&D in employee well-being. ...

Union president speaks on possible Ascension Genesys nurses strikeWNEM-TV5, GeneseeCo., MI; by Zain Omair and Hannah Mose; 5/20/24Registered nurses are ready to strike this week if union negotiations with a mid-Michigan hospital aren’t successful. Union president Dan Glass said if the union and Ascension Genesys don’t have a tentative agreement by Friday morning, May 24, the nurses represented by the union will hit the picket line for a strike. ... According to Glass, the union is looking for wage increases, but the biggest piece is staffing shortages and patient care concerns.